Down at the ranch

A weekend love affair.... with fire and food... and doing nothing. (except getting that Damn Christmas Tree) <<<-

We've been eating good in this neighborhood, which consists of like three families.  all living over a mile away. so its just been us making good food and eating it. The problem is we planned on twice as many people and we keep making food to feed twice as many people and we keep eating food for twice as many people. like bread..

Three hot loaves...

Yeah, that is too much to handle... but ohhh does it taste good... for those who want to know how to make a cool loaf like this:

I double this and add way too much salt, but that makes it better. smiley face

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

let cool to room temp... you will kill the best part of the flavor if you cut into it too soon. 

you can leave these out of the bag for a couple of days as long as you leave the bread cut side down on the cutting board.

now for my treat... my sister made Aranchini...

rizzoto rice balls with oooie gooie cheese deep fried love

I mean really, 45 of these things for 7 adults and 5 kids... as the appetizer...

Three main dishes and 4 sides... and whats for dessert... well, nothing yet but im sure they will be calling soon... Bobby... come eat something sweet..... then i'll have to make it to eat it.  

So, the tree.. let me tell you about the tree, or trees.  we got two permits, we left them at the ranch... no big deal, we'll just cut them, take them home and wrap the tags then. Here comes the Ranger!  He was like oh you left them 20 miles back down the road, that sucks.  but then he was cool and was like just cut them and email me a pic of your tags.  that was cool.

Time for the hunt...

I brought 4 pair of snowshoes and as we were leaving the ranch i thought maybe we wont need them, its been pretty warm but I took them anyway.  Glad I did! The snow was almost 4 feet deep in spots and was atleast 2 feet everywhere else.

We were at roughly 9572 feet above sea level and my lungs were lets say a little bit angry and a little bit happy to be pushing it so hard.  

I had the Chain Saw and that thing gets heavy. but i would hate to do it with out one.  

There it was, something out of the Griswold Family Christmas, the perfect tree.  50 feet tall and 25 feet across... so we cut the one next to it...for us... 20 feet tall and pretty cool.  Man was it heavy. Cody, my Brother, and I carried it half way up to the trucks before we about died. Then we went to cut his tree. I was a bit further down the mountain and oh boy did it make my tree feel like balsa wood.  i mean we spent over an hour getting it to the truck and we fell over once or twice.  This is funny... Cody was taking the lead on spinning the tree so it was going in the right direction and I caught a rock... down i went. We switch ends and he catches a rock... Whoops a daisy... we switch again and now he goes down in front... it was a rough trail.  

pictures to come 

little full, lotta sap

I have now heard the call...

gotta get somthin sweet...